For next week's performances, accompanied by music masters from the Hebei Beijing Opera Theater, Pei and her husband Kuo Ching-chun (郭景春) have adapted all the Bangzi and Kun opera pieces for Beijing opera's style of singing and speaking.
For wu xi fans, Pei will perform her most celebrated role of Chung Kui to a full house on opening night. Despite her age, Pei will wear the heavy costume of the great warrior in which she will perform stunts, including a backward somersault from a chair.
When asked whether Pei can still master the physically demanding roles, Li confessed, “at first I also had some doubts about it, but she has proved to be an unparalleled performer, transcending all categories of age or sex.”
Besides her martial-art laden portraits of Monkey King and Wu Song, Pei will further surprise the audience with her rarely displayed operatic skills of the Yu-school (余派) on the second day.
When explaining the value of the Yu-school's singing skills for the role of Laosheng, Li told Taipei Times, “the founder of the Yu-school, Yu Shu–yan (余叔岩), retired from the opera scene at the age of 48, admitting the singing techniques he created were simply too difficult to master. But Pei, in her 50s, began to study these most taxing singing skills … and when we jokingly suggested she should pick an easier school, she replied, ‘but it wouldn't be as satisfying and challenging.’”
In the last two days of Pei's visit to Taipei, the audience will see the virtuoso push her own limits by playing two roles in Prosperity Brought by the Dragon and the Phoenix (龍鳳呈祥) and four characters in Conquering Eastern Wu Dynasty (伐東吳) from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義). Has the Beijing opera heroine gone too far? Pei is said to smile away the concern by saying “no, it's not exhausting at all. No one has ever done it and I think it will have a great appeal for the audience.”
Performance Notes:
What: Yen-ling Pei in Chinese Opera (裴豔玲演京劇)
Where: National Theater (國家戲劇院)
When: Aug. 9 to 12 at 7:30pm, Aug 13 at 2:30pm
Tickets: NT$300 tp NT$1,500, available through NTCH ticketing outlets; visit www.artsticket.com.tw or call (02) 3393-9888
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